A platen is often used for direct to garment textile printing (e.g., to print lettering and/or design on t-shirts and other garments). The garment may be placed on the platen for a variety of printing operations. Depending on the printing operation, an operator may need to use more than one different platen during the printing operation. For example, the operator may first need to use a pretreatment platen for pretreating the garment fabric. The operator may then need to use a heat press platen for heat pressing the garment. Then the operator may need to use a printing platen for printing on the garment, followed by a final curing heat press operation.
Not only does the operator have to use multiple different types of platens, but the operator also has to handle the garment and platen during each of the various printing stages. For example, a garment may need to be placed on and aligned on each of the different platens during the printing process. Having to load, stretch, and then repeat this process for each of the various platens increases the time required for the printing operations.